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Sunday, March 13, 2016

A new twist to a favorite dish.........meatloaf

Not the same tomato sauce topped meatloaf in this recipe.

No, this has a sweeter taste........and prepared differently......with the topping baked on the bottom and then the pan inverted........like and upside down cake.

This recipe is from the 1930s for one of my favorite cookbook authors,

Jane Watson Hopping

I discovered Jane Hopping when I bought one of her cookbooks at Wal-mart. I fell in love with her whole writing style , her family memories, and wonderful recipes.

I spent a year.........obtaining all of her books.........before I found Amazon.

The topping on this meatloaf is made of brown sugar .......and then a cranberry/orange sauce.

As odd as it may sound........it is delicious.

I do need to say,***** that I did not add the other meats as the recipe calls for*****. I made my meatloaf with all ground sirloin........or ground beef, plus I did not use the pecans.

After the recipe, I also posted the information about Jane Watson Hopping, who was known in her area as the "Pioneer Lady"

not to be confused with the famous Pioneer Woman of today's time.

So here is the recipe from her "Many Blessings Cookbook"

A FAVORITE UPSIDE-DOWN CRANBERRY MEATLOAF

1/4 light brown sugar 3/4 cup cracker crumbs or bread crumbs

1/2 cup cranberry sauce 2 eggs beaten

2 Tbs. grated orange peel 1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 pound lean ground beef Dash of black pepper

1/2 pound smoked ham (see***) 2 Tbs. diced onion

1/2 pound ground fresh pork (see***) 1/3 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F, Thoroughly grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

Spread sugar over the bottom of prepared pan. In a small bowl mash the cranberry sauce and stir in the grated orange rind. Spread cranberry mixture over the sugar. In a large bowl combine remaining ingredients, except nuts. Shape into a loaf and pack over the cranberry mixture.

Bake until meat is firm and lightly browned, about 1 hour. Remove from oven, let meat set 5 minutes, then turn upside-down onto a platter. Spoon any glaze left in the pan onto the meat. Garnish, If you with with chopped nuts. Enjoy

Jane Watson Hopping 1929-1998

A tiny woman who sported gray curls, calico dresses and a ready smile, Hopping gained national attention in 1987, with publication of The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen. The homey tome of recipes and nostalgic essays propelled her onto reader's favorites lists and TV talk shows.

The message in Hopping's first book and the five published works that followed was always the same. Her collections recalled an era of close kin and helpful neighbors, where collaboration was the rule, not the exception. She said the cookbooks grew out of a desire to share old-fashioned values.

I'm writing about what I saw as a young girl growing up, Hopping insisted when interviewers questioned her rosy nostalgia. It really was that way.

Hopping was born in Kansas and lived most of her young life in Missouri, according to her husband of nearly 49 years.

From the time she was — year old until we got married when we were 19, we never lived more than 25 miles apart from each other,'' he said.

As adults, the Hoppings moved to Northern California, and then to the Rogue Valley in 1959. Jane Hopping earned a real estate license, but after the couple adopted two children, Colleen and Randy, she stayed home to raise them.

The Hoppings lived and worked for more than four decades on a 40-acre farm off West Griffin Creek Road in Jacksonville.

When her children got older, Hopping began touring area schools, teaching pioneer skills and crafts.

They churned butter in class, they made candles in class, they made log cabins out of pretzels, Raymond Hopping recalled. They said the week we came, attendance went up. You can't have a better compliment than that.

In the mid-1970s, Hopping began work on a compendium of farm knowledge, a project that eventually filled 1,000 single-spaced typed pages. She was the popular star for five years of a cooking show on Medford television station KOBI.

In 1987, Con Sellers, the late literary agent and teacher, recommended Hopping to a publisher seeking a cookbook writer. The was the start of a long and profitable relationship with Villard Books.

Hopping's books ranged the seasons and included volumes focusing on Christmas, Mother's Day, summer, autumn and winter, as in her last work, The Pioneer Lady's Hearty Winter Cookbook.

In a published article about her passing:

Posted Nov. 16, 1998 at 2:00 AM

Cookbook author Jane Hopping dies after long illness

Jane Watson Hopping, the calico-clad cookbook author known as the Pioneer Lady to Rogue Valley schoolchildren and readers nationwide, has died. She was 69.

Hopping died Saturday in a local nursing home following complications of diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. A diabetic for 30 years, she had been seriously ill since about 1993, her husband, Raymond Hopping, said Sunday.

Service plans are pending.

Until about two months ago, Hopping was still living in the couple's Gold Hill home, where she and her husband were compiling notes for a cookbook about the Depression era. It would have been Hopping's eighth book.

I will miss her sense of humor, said Al Reiss, a former Mail Tribune entertainment writer and Hopping's longtime friend. She did `Good Morning America' and `Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.' She upstaged Regis on his own show.

Reiss, who wrote several poems that appeared in Hopping's books, said he'll remember their warm collaboration.

I'll miss working with her and seeing them and going to their home and just having an old-fashioned lunch, Reiss said.

All of Hopping's published books are out of print, but Raymond Hopping said he hopes to pursue softcover publication of the works his wife cherished.

Besides, he adds, Hopping's agent has fielded a few inquiries about a completed but unpublished book, The Good Old Golden Rules Day Cookbook.

Maybe that book will be the one to start it all again, he said. She wouldn't be the first author that was recognized after she was gone.

In addition to her husband, Hopping is survived by a daughter, Colleen Maddox of Ashland, a son, Randy Hopping of Pasco, Wash., and a granddaughter.

About Me

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Granny's Favorite Recipe

Ingredients:1 coddled grandchild of either gender1 proud grandmother, soft-boiled and tender1 well -beaten fairy- tale book1 stuffed teddy bear with a faraway look1 washed, dried blanket, satin bordered with rips1 freshly baked cookie with chocolate chipsMethod:Toss all except Granny straight up in the airDrop into squeaking, rocking arm chairFold in Grandmother's outstretched armsTuck teddy and blanket around small child's charmsOpen fairy-tale book to very first pageBegin by saying, "Now when I was your age..."Mix stories of bunnies, bears, piggies and soupRepeat bedtime stories until child's eyelids droop.When the cookie has crumbled and child starts to yawnPlace child, teddy, and blanket in warm bed until dawn.Yeild:2 happy people